Category Archives: Uncategorized

The end of April, I have heard from several people this week, is one of the best times of year to visit the Lake district. It certainly seemed so this year, when I encountered four days of dry, sunny weather, pleasant but not too hot temperatures, and modest but not overwhelming numbers of visitors. FourContinue reading “Fells, lakes and the kindness of strangers”

You’d be forgiven for thinking, reading this blog, that the majority of the walks I do are in the mountains, National Parks, Highlands and Islands. In fact, living in the south east of England, the bulk of my walking involves day trips to the Home Counties. And it has to be said, there’s a greatContinue reading “South East England’s hidden treasures”

It’s taken around twenty years from when I first heard of the Canary island of La Gomera to actually getting there. One of the relatively few places you can enjoy snow free mountain walking in the northern hemisphere during our winter, the best time to walk there coincided, until now, with my busiest time atContinue reading “La Gomera: Isla Columbina”

I really enjoyed the Pennine Way. And I’m not sure I fully expected to. Certainly, I knew it passed through the splendour of the Yorkshire Dales, but fundamentally it was more a walk that I felt I should do, rather than one I actively longed to. I think this goes back a long way. MyContinue reading “Spotlight on…the Pennine Way”

As a walker, I am ever conscious of the debt we owe others for the ability to enjoy the great outdoors. While on the one hand humanity has variously despoiled, exploited and damaged the land, habitats and wildlife, and sought to exclude, whether by enclosure, intimidation or the power of wealth; others have to stoodContinue reading “Our green and pleasant land”

This Christmas I was given a fascinating book: King Sequoia, about the most magnificent and largest of trees, the giant sequoia, part of the redwood family. Written by a former US National Park ranger,William Tweed, it relates the fascinating, but predictably disturbing, story of how the mightiest of trees was first encountered by European AmericansContinue reading “The mighty sequoia”

When I started this blog, the original aim was to cover my planned journey along the Alpe Adria trail in summer of 2020. In my initial posts I deliberately wrote in definitive terms: I would be walking the trail, not that I merely planned or hoped to do so. Times have changed and all youContinue reading “Walk 1000 miles and more”

I’ve come to the conclusion that Bute, which lies just off the Firth of Clyde, just a couple of hours from Glasgow, is a much underrated place. Having just come back from a week in Rothesay, Bute’s biggest town, courtesy of a kind offer by a friend of ours to stay at his flat, IContinue reading “The beauty of Bute”

And so we came to the final day of the route. As it turned out, the shortest day of the walk, from Llanfairfechan to Conwy, totalling just over 11 miles. It was a similar start to yesterday, climbing up via lanes, through a farm and then onto the moor, this time above Llanfairfechan. The routeContinue reading “Walking the Snowdonia Way: Day 8”

Today’s walk was a walk along the moorland overlooking the north coast of Wales, with a mid day diversion away from the coastal hills to the Aber Falls. First we had to retrace our way to Bethesda, taking the bus back from Bangor to the place we left the route yesterday. Almost immediately after leavingContinue reading “Walking the Snowdonia Way: Day 7”